Great Britain Research Paper

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In addition, Great Britain had significant financial and commercial interests in the Ottoman Empire. She possessed about 15 per ent of the Ottoman public debt, and 14 per cent of the investment in private enterprise. In Mesopotamia and in the Persian Gulf, she also was allotted worthwhile oil concessions; two thirds of the import-export trade was under her control. Beside several important industries and institutions such as Izmir-Aydin railway, the National Bank of Turkey, the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company and the Constantinople Telephone Company were controlled by the Britain. Consequently, during the years leading up to the First World War the preservation of the Ottoman Empire on the whole continued to be a leading foreign policy objective for the Britain as well as for the French.…show more content…
The Britain feared that the Ottoman Empire, supported and equipped by Germany and led by German officers would strike Britain position in Egypt and the Persian Gulf. She was as well anxious about possible insurrections among the Muslim peoples of Egypt, Afghanistan and the Indian sub-continent instigated by secret agents and backed by pan-Islamic propaganda campaign. This would enable the central power to control the Straits and, hence, hamper the main supply line between the western Entente powers, Britain and France, with Russia. Britain, in conjunction with other powers of the Entente, attempted to persuade the Ottomans to remain neutral in the war. Whilst the negotiation with the Turks went on Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, dispatches a letter on August 15 to Sir Francis Bertie, the British ambassador in
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